Avengers: Infinity War (2018) Review

Title: Infinity War
Year: 2018
Director: Anthony Russo
Country: US
Language: English

Unlike many fans of this series, I haven't viewed a whole lot of the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) However, the films I have seen; Black Panther (2018), Civil War (2016), Thor: Ragnorok (2017) and Spiderman: Homecoming (2017) have left me impressed with the overall evolution of the Superhero genre of action films. With Infinity War, the interconnections of these individual films into one singular feature proved to be a challenging feat with high expectations that somehow managed to satisfy even a noob fan like me.

The Avengers, which is a team that includes almost every marvel superhero you can think of,  and their allies must be willing to sacrifice all in an attempt to defeat the powerful Thanos (Josh Brolin) before he captures all the infinity stones, six all powerful gems, that will help him "cut" the universe in half.

Brolin plays Thanos, a tragic villain who thinks he is the hero because his end goal is supposedly "ending suffering" (by mass genocide). His performance is his best since No Country for Old Men (2007) mainly considering that he gives great depth & complexity to a CGI character that could easily have been a one dimensional "bad guy". The screenplay by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely does a good job and making sure every character gets a decent amount of screen-time. 

Overall Infinity Wars is quite balanced when it comes to devastating drama & humor. One scene will have you on the verge of tears, whereas in another Drax (Dave Bautista) will have you bursting with laughter as he admires Thor's manly muscles. From intense action scenes to incredibly intimate moments, this picture maintains the right pacing throughout. Every emotional transition comes with elegance and cohesion. You normally don't see such well-made films in Hollywood anymore. 

It's unfortunate that Infinity War (2018) is not an end to the series, as I'm sure more Avengers films will come in the future. In many ways this is very much Marvel's answer to The Empire Strikes Back. I really enjoyed the picture; it is the best of the series so far and- as a standalone- it's a pretty good film.